National Punctuation Day
Today is National Punctuation Day. Find a favorite punctuation rule, and break it!
Just in time for the new school year, National Punctuation Day is here. Yes, in the United States, we have such a day. I learned about it this morning, and I thought you’d like to know about it too.
Do you have a favorite punctuation mark? I do. It’s actually a combination of marks, all used together with quotes. I know the rules for using quotation marks as well as the next guy, but I intentionally break this rule every time I get the chance. It’s just plain silly. Here it is: Place periods and commas inside quotations. Here are a couple correctly punctuated examples:
- Bill wrote an article named “Telling Time Internationally.”
- The Java keyword is “switch,” and it only works with integers.
I can’t stand it. I much prefer this regardless of the rule:
- Bill wrote an article named “Telling Time Internationally”.
- The Java keyword is “switch”, and it only works with integers.
Need another reason to love the British? Apparently they use the rule in the only sane way I can understand. I’ve read that the Canadians do too. Hurray for Canada! Hurray for Great Britain! There may be other countries that do this correctly too. Let me know.
I absolutely agree with you, John. I have always thought there was something objectionable about adding punctuation marks to the “quoted text” when they are actually part of the “quoting text” or container. It’s just not right, there should be a law! Or at least a rule! Quoted authors should stand up together and say “Stop it”! Or even “Stop it!”.
There is a slight problem with deliberately breaking the rules, however, and it has to do with multilingual audiences and multilingual businesses. You see, there are languages such as German where the punctuation belongs outside the quotation marks (unless it is part of the quoted text). If you are in the business of writing or translating English and another language, let’s say German, you have to keep convincing the audience that you do indeed understand the rules and you’re breaking them deliberately and for a good reason. Otherwise you will end up in the league of “da guys dat cant doo grammer good”.
BTW - Along a similar line I have been know to deliberately split an infinite or two. But that’s another story, or thread.
Erich
Posted by Erich on 09/09 at 04:53 AM
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